US: Indian-American Purvi Patel's foeticide conviction overturned by Indiana court

The Indiana Court of Appeals has overturned the foeticide conviction of an Indian-American woman found guilty of killing the premature infant she delivered after ingesting abortion-inducing drugs.

The ruling issued on Friday comes in the case of Purvi Patel, who was convicted of neglect and foeticide in 2015. However, the court upheld a lower-level felony neglect of a dependent conviction.

Patel was 32 when she delivered the infant at her home in Granger in 2013. Women's advocacy groups say the case marked the first time a state foeticide law was used against a woman because of an alleged self-induced abortion. Patel's attorneys say the foeticide laws prosecutors used don't apply to Patel's alleged actions.

State lawyers argued that Patel's infant was just beyond the threshold of viability and took at least one breath before dying.